Steinbeck has given a suitable title to the story, “The Chrysanthemums,” which relates to Elisa as chrysanthemums symbolize both Elisa and the limited scope of her life. Just like her, the flowers are unobjectionable and also unimportant; both are merely decorative and add little value to the world. Elisa is passionate and loving towards her chrysanthemums. She is smart, attractive and ambitious, but all these qualities go waste as she has limitations under which a married women lives. Henry Allen, her husband, clearly ignores her passion and care towards chrysanthemums.
As said before just in the name of the ranch itself shows a quick peek. It is not the Allen family ranch but the Henry Allen ranch saying to everyone that comes in who owns the property and just who is in charge. Elsie is a strong woman and you can tell by the way it is discribed how she handles her flowers “even her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy” (Steinbeck 2011, para 5). So even though it is acknowledged that she is productive and dutiful she is relegated to only helping with the flower garden as her husband work with the more manly duties of rounding up the horses and selling heads of cattle to buisness men.
In these works of Alice Walkers, she portrays the tangible and visible beauty of her mother’s flowers along with the emotional beauty of the warm memories. In “My Mothers Blue Bowl,” (1170) Walker reveals the beauty of selflessness from memories of her mother. Her selflessness could be shown in her struggle to provide the standard of living to raise her children that she didn’t need for herself necessarily. It is depicted in the story when she works for a nice house then after the children move she downgrades to all she needs. Her mother only wanted to possess the beauty she created with her hands, other possessions were meaningless to her.
This description symbolizes her strengths when working on her plants. Because gardening is what makes Elisa strong, the Chrysanthemums represent her inner-self. Elisa knows her own strengths, “‘Yes. They’ll be strong this coming year.’ In her tone and on her face there was a little smugness” when she replies to her husband’s remark, “You’ve got a strong new crop coming” (Steinbeck 255); and prides herself with it. The fence that surrounds and protects her garden “from cattle and dogs and chickens” (Steinbeck 55) also describes her strength because it symbolizes a guard which Elisa puts up to protect her from a man bringing her down.
I wish women could do such things.” (Steinbeck 231) Elisa wants excitement and adventure in her life; she wants to feel important in the world. Everyday is the same for Elisa, “It was a hard-swept looking little house with hard-polished windows, and a clean mud-mat on the front steps.” (Steinbeck 227) Elisa has the ability to produce beautiful things; she wishes to use that ability on something other than her flowers. “You’ve got a gift with things,” Her husband said about her flowers. “I wish you’d work out in the orchard
Hidden Passion’s In John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums” imagery and symbols are used to show the repressed feminine qualities, hidden passion and feelings of inequality in the main character Elisa Allen. Who is a strong, capable woman kept from social, personal and sexual fulfillment . Elisa is a homemaker living in Salinas Valley, California with her farmer husband Henry. Elisa is a lonely woman whose days consist of nourishing and growing “chrysanthemum” flowers in her fenced in garden. Steinbeck uses the “chrysanthemum” flower, the variation of her clothing, the way she interacts with her husband and the tinker as examples of symbolism.
But on a deeper level these changes are caused by her frustrated psychological state during the events and alterations occurring in her life without any warnings. The vegetable plot represents memories of summers at the dacha that she loved. It represented innocence, dreams and hope in survival and in the future. Anna’s attitude towards the plot at first was very caring and artful. That was her personality.
Flowers and weeds, flowers and weeds. Spring is here and life is brewing in the dirt. Many of us, myself included, spend time and money making our lawns and gardens look nice. From chemicals both natural and deadly to hand plucking those pesky plants out of the way so that our beloved fruit and flower bearing friends will be plentiful. So, what is it that makes the flower so special?
The Life You Save May Be Your Own Reflection The story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own Reflection” took many reads to figure out and analyze. First, I took a look at the characters. The old Lucynelle has nothing in her life besides her daughter and her crumbling farm. She loves her daughter and does everything for her. Although, she was in a rush to get her married.
She loves to grow Chrysanthemums. Her husband think Elisa has good hand for planting because, whatever she planted everything was successful that’s why her husband is so proud of her. Elisa is a lonely woman who takes care of the garden like you could say from her point of view is “Cage” she would do anything to protect herself from harmful. In paragraph 11th Stated: “You've got a gift with things," Henry observed. "Some of those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across.